In order to explore the intersection of nexthetics (the term for hip-hop and spoken word aesthetics created at 2003 Ford Foundation Future Aesthetics conference) and classical theatre the Oregon Shakespeare Festival brings together expert practitioners and connects with community based performers. We hold educational lectures and workshops, program nexthetics based performers in the Green Show, and sponsor spoken word events.

Lucky Stiff
Book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, music by Stephen Flaherty
What would you do to fulfill the conditions of a six million dollar inheritance? Harry Witherspoon finds out that the conditions of his late uncle’s will include taking his dead body on a trip to Monte Carlo. He dutifully visits all the sights in town with Uncle Anthony, only to find that he’s being followed by three mysterious strangers. This delightful musical farce received the Richard Rodgers Award in 1988.
Director: Dennis Smith
For more details http://www.sou.edu/theatre/patronres.html Ashland Oregon Theater

La Terrasse by Jean-Claude Carrière
May 10 thru May 20, 12
Translated and adapted by Eva Harris and Francine Le Roux
Pacific Northwest premiere! Love is hard, but real estate is impossible. La Terrasse (The Terrace) is a wildly funny, absurdist farce of dissolving marriages, job-hunting, traffic jams, and house-hunting in our increasingly disconnected modern life. If something can go wrong, it will go wrong in this comedy of manners – but is anything really wrong? Playwright Jean-Claude Carrière won an Academy Award for his screenplay The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
Director: Jackie Apodaca
For more details on Ashland Oregon Theater at SOUhttp://www.sou.edu/theatre/patronres.html

Taking place in City Island, the Bronx, this funny and poignant play looks at petty gangsters, relationships, self-esteem and Tai Chi, but most importantly, it examines who we need to become in our relationships in order to truly love another person.

“Geoghan’s characters simply all have heart, and they are impossible not to care about.” — Heather Zimmerman, San Jose Metro.

In Nikolai Gogol’s The Government Inspector, a simple case of mistaken identity catapults the unemployed Khlestakov from desperate straits to new fortune and questionable power. In a new adaptation with influences from Monty Python and Brazil, Oded Gross styles Gogol’s iconic 19th century satire with a fresh Great Recession take.

Gross’s adaptation is being developed for a world premiere co-production by The Theatre @ Boston Court and Furious Theatre Company, Pasadena, California, to be directed by Stefan Novinski in the Summer of 2012.

April 9 at the Black Swan Theater: the Redant Souljah Crew – DJ Omari, Bed Baden, and I am Low.

“Get down like Shakespeare, flip language and be a rhyme master”

In order to explore the intersection of nexthetics (the term for hip-hop and spoken word aesthetics created at 2003 Ford Foundation Future Aesthetics conference) and classical theatre the Oregon Shakespeare Festival brings together expert practitioners and connects with community based performers. We hold educational lectures and workshops, program nexthetics based performers in the Green Show, and sponsor spoken word events.

Unlike quite a few of my guests, I almost never pre-read a script or research the play before viewing it. However, in this case, for this play, my interest and enjoyment of this play would have been improved with a little preparation.
For me, more contextual knowledge would have increased my engagement while viewing this play. Read More

As a fundraiser for the Ashland Contemporary Theater, Artistic Director, Jeannine Grizzard, reprises the one-woman show she has toured throughout the Southeast for seven years.

The play reveals the character and ideas of Virginia Woolf through her 1928 address to the women’s colleges of Cambridge. Her inspirational talk explores the nature of the artist and the conditions required to create genius. (Named fourth most important non-fiction of the 20th Century by Modern Library.)

Advance tickets are $15, and for a $20 donation at the door. Tickets are on sale at Paddington Station and Grocery Outlet in Medford. You can make a reservation at 541 646‑2971.

An ancient tale with classic messages, enacted beautifully with a blend of puppetry, light, ingenious prop use, acrobatic dance and live music. Both tragic and comedic, the tale will speak to many about loyalty, jealousy and most of all, loving enduring acceptance of others despite their demons.

The run time is shorter than most plays, thus you will be transported into the fairytale with no interruptions, i.e., no intermission!

If it’s not obvious by now, I really liked this performance. My only regret is that White Snake will not be played for the full season. It closes July 8th. Only those who come early in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s season will be rewarded with this delightful performance.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Hoping to elope, imperiled lovers Hermia and Lysander flee to the forest of Athens, pursued by Hermia’s jilted fiancé Demetrius and his pining ex-girlfriend Helena. Hi-jinks ensue when the four cross paths with feuding fairy royalty, a mischievous sprite named Puck, and a troupe of overmatched amateur thespians, (mis)led by a vainglorious ass named Bottom.